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Finnish numbers

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland had 4.1 million members at the end of 2013 — about three-quarters of the country’s population. The statistics take into account that people are automatically born into church membership but are allowed to resign and not pay a church tax. In 2013, about 59,000 people resigned. A majority (53 percent) of those resignations came from adults aged 20 to 29. Yet 46 percent of new members were also young adults. For the over-80 age group, 89 percent claim church membership — as opposed to 65 percent of those 30 to 39.